Bhubaneswar: Ahead of the launch of Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana (PM-KISAN) today, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi reiterated his demand to increase the assistance under PM-Kisan to Rs 10,000 from Rs 6,000 per year. He also demanded inclusion of sharecroppers and landless farmers into the central scheme.

This was Patnaik’s second letter to the PM where he has batted for the sharecroppers, landless farmers and farmers. “These categories of agricultural workers are at the bottom of the agriculture economy pyramid and they deserve special care and attention. Rural prosperity and reduction in poverty cannot be achieved without an adequate focus on these weaker sections of the populace,” the CM stated in the letter.

“I would earnestly request you to kindly consider enhancing the scale of assistance to at least Rs 10,000 per annum per family and also include landless agricultural labourers, share croppers and vulnerable agricultural households under the PM-KISAN scheme,” Patnaik said in the letter addressed to Modi.

Under the central scheme, the farmers having five acre of land or less will get Rs 6,000 assistance per annum in three different phases while Odisha’s Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) scheme provides Rs 10,000 per annum.

Patnaik said, “So far, about 30, 40 lakh agricultural households have been provided cash assistance of Rs 5,000 including about 3.10 lakh number of landless households and 58,000 share croppers. We are committed to assist all eligible beneficiaries under the scheme.”